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shannananan · 11 months ago

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Incomplete list of 2023 TV & Movies - I’ve been adding to this list all year without any revisions passed initial reactions. 2023 really served loads of anticipated adaptations, sequels and original content. It felt like we were truly in a sweet spot of beautiful things put to film.

Starting in chronological order of when I saw each, and yes, i know there’s still ones I missed.

January - The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2: 9/10 Chroma Conclave, Kaylie, Matron of Ravens, surprising amount of Pikelan

February - The Last of Us: 9/10 Im new in town so going into this show at face value has been a delightful horror

March - Shadow & Bone Season 2: 7/10 Writing went out the window in episode 7 or would have been higher. Would have been lower if Crows weren’t cast in actual perfection

April - Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves: 10/10 Truly the most fun at the theatres in years.

May - Queen Charlotte: 9/10 i was not prepared to sob uncontrollably for a solid 20 minutes

May - Guardians of the Galaxy 3: N/A I can’t properly assess this movie. I was in an absolute horrible state the day I saw it and given the themes of the film, I sobbed for nearly two hours straight. Did I enjoy it? No. Is it an incredibly written and acted rage-filled magnum opus? Absolutely.

June - The Little Mermaid: 7.5/10 Surprised how delightful it was. Eric & Ariel’s chemistry was excellent, the changes gave the characters more depth. Detracted points for the Scuttlebutt Rap.

June - Across the Spiderverse: 15/10 Perfection and then some.

June - Nimona: 8/10 What an absolutely refreshing delight

July - Dragon Prince Season 5: 7/10 Lost me in the first half but damn that pirate arc came thru

July - Barbie: 10/10 Perfection, no notes. The first absolutely sold out movie theatre experience in years and the entire audience was in pink. S U B L I M E

August - Good Omens 2: 8/10 ... 9/10 so long as we get a season 3. (December update: Okay we did it kids)

August - Oppenheimer: 8/10 Wonderfully executed. RDJ snapping up that Supporting Actor award. Excellent twist and beautiful all around. could’ve shaved about 40 mins off.

August - Heartstopper 2: 7/10 saccharinely sweet in the best way, i think i am just a bit too elder millennial for high school shows now

August - Red White & Royal Blue: 6/10 (upon rewatch with the girlies - 8/10) Are parts of it cringey? Yes. Are parts of it surprisingly lovely? Yes Perfect girls night rom-com.

August - Strange New Worlds: “Those Old Scientists” 13/10 “Subspace Rhapsody” 15/10 Perfection. No Notes.

September - One Piece Live Action: 8/10 I’m new in town with no previous interaction with the anime or manga (beyond osmosis from friends) and it was an utter delight

September - Blue Beetle: 7.5/10 Honestly a fantastic origin superhero movie. If it had come out before Superhero movie fatigue and hadn’t gotten lost in the strikes, this is a solid movie. They got the family dynamic RIGHT.

October - Book Extra: Percy Jackson & The Chalice of the Gods: 10/10 can’t even be mad that it was short cause more books are coming

October - Podcast Extra: Strike Force Five: 9/10 Going into Episode 5 innocently before any lore had been built around has got to be the hardest I’ve laughed at any media for over an hour for a long time. i had a headache afterwards

October - Our Flag Means Death Season 2: 8/10 My perfect show isn’t perfect anymore and that’s okay. MVP of the season was blackbeard’s wig 15/10

November - The Marvels: 6/10 I really really wanted to like this movie. The weight of the MCU brought it down and muddied the screenplay into something mediocre rather than letting it lean into a genre film. I will give it props that the use of Memory healed something in my soul that fundamentally broke during Cats (2019).

November - Killers of the Flower Moon: 9/10 The horror is in the slow, quiet, mundanity that stretches through the entire film. with impeccable performances by Lily Gladstone and Robert de Niro. It is not a comfortable or easy watch and I absolutely understand the Indigenous critique of the film and that there is space for layered discussions.

December - The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes: 9/10 Having not read the book and not revisiting THG series since it’s cultural zeitgeist, it was amazing how easy it was to fall back into the world. This film carries a different kind of dirtier grounded authenticity that hits closer to the world we live in right now than the later stories in the world. The interweaving of music is masterful and no one is doing it like Rachel Zegler right now. A villain doomed by his own hubris, paranoia, and drive for power, this was an incredible origin story

December - The Boy & The Heron: 9/10 When the movie ended i just sat there thinking “that was one of the most beautiful things ive ever seen”. Did I understand all of it? No. And thats okay. Esoteric, whimsical, emotionally driven by grief and a child trying to understand mortality. It had all the Miyazaki hits: funky lil round friends, mouth-watering food, the most unhinged lil grandmas, a beautiful world doomed for destruction, a weird little man, a highly competent badass lady, and the most existential questions about existence.

December - Percy Jackson & The Olympians (so far): 9/10 With only 3 episodes released before the end of the year - it’s incredible. PJO fans are winning. Jason Mantzoukas is perfect casting. The trio have so much chemistry. I would die for Grover, Aryan is killing it.

December - Honourable Mention: Silver Skates (2020): 12/10 Stumbled onto this Russian movie on Netflix and It. Has. Everything. You want Six of Crows and Peaky Blinders on skates? You want Russian-knock-off Tom Holland? It’s serving Anastasia/Titanic/Moulin Rouge. The cinematography is stunning. My heart would not stop racing.

#2023 in review

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junewild · 4 years ago

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please tell me what those books are (about)! 🥺

🥺😍 my very favorite book/tv series are

1. the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater (angry girl who learns to love and be loved? yes. scared and angry boys who learn to love and be loved? oh god yes. boy(s) and man who do their duty no matter the cost? yes. listen. listen. i will think about the grey man for the rest of my life. he was a king. he was a king. YEARNING? UNBEARABLY MUCH I CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW MUCH THERE ARE NO WORDS except the ones maggie uses because she writes like she’s possessed by a poet.)

- addendum: the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater (all of the above, but this time there are oceans and horses and ocean-horses)

2. the mistborn trilogy by brandon sanderson (angry scared girl who learns to love? yes. men and women who do their duty no matter the cost? people who do the right thing even if it doesn’t matter because of course it matters, and if enough people do the right thing eventually it WILL matter? YES. yearning???? read the ending and tell me you don’t fucking YEARN. also everyone else yearns. also also there’s a lot of anthropology about how religions and governments come to be and work and why. u can see why i love it)

3. the expanse series/tv show (lots of angry girls, lots of people learning to love. men and women who do the right thing no matter what because it’s the only way to make the world a better place, and if enough people do the right thing eventually it adds up to make real change. the yearning?? unbearable)

4. the lost fleet series by jack campbell (okay okay okay. hear me out. it’s a little pulpy. it’s not grest writing, although it improves significantly as it goes along and all of the sequel series are quite good. it is written by a man and you can tell. but angry and scared people who have hurt and been hurt in a vicious cycle learning to be good again? to love and be loved and fight for something that matters again? men and women who do their duty even when that means sacrificing everything? being in love with your companion at arms but refusing to act on it, to even speak of it, lest you betray your duty and honor? the HUMANITY of it all??? the sheer, fucking, humanity?????? also corporations bad democracy good brrrr i think at least 50% of my personality and worldview may actually be lifted verbatim from this series)

5. all for the game by nora sakavic (this one is some scared and angry boys learning to love and be loved. and some scared and angry girls who have already learned to love and be loved. and a lot of people who do the right thing and sometimes the wrong one but then the right thing again because they are trying to be better. and THE YEARNING IS UNPARALLELED)

6. anne of green fables by l m montgomery (is it old? yes. is it problematic? of fucking course it was written in nineteen oh eight they were straight christians back then. is it about a scared girl who learns to love and be loved? yes. and a girl who learns to do the right thing when she can, even if she does the wrong thing first? yes. and a girl who yearns? YES.)

7. the hunger games (need i say more.)

8. the good place (NEED I SAY MORE.)

thank you for listening to me talk about the books and/or tv shows that i have consumed an average of twelve times each, you��re the real mvp and i love you forever xoxo

#asks #personal #but they are all good stories #we are the children of an indifferent universe

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wispsoffrankiepratt · 4 years ago

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When I die and they play the end credits of my life I would like to thank:

Jesus (the real MVP)

My mom (kinda)

My sister

Not my dad

My husband

Not by ex-best friend

My dog kia (rip)

My winter biome minecraft village that I've spent 500+ hours on (it still looks like crap <3 )

Piano

Oroun Highschool Host Club

Professor Layton

Undertale

Fanfiction of the above 3 that kept me sane in highschool/uni

Grass stains

Rice with too much butter

2am anime

In class anime

At work anime

Anime

The sunglasses that I wore for four years straight until they broke and I cried and still have them in a box (rip)

Owl City

The t r a m a

Noodles with butter and too much permasan cheese

Tik tok

Biology class

The color purple

No my therapist

My nintendo dogs (rip)

Drunk family at Christmas (lol & BYE)

The fact that I (like most people) didn't have a year off of school from preschool until I was 23, that sh*ts messed up and responsible for so much of what I dislike about myself

Chocolate

Phineas and Ferb

Heck the whole (old) Family Channel

My 4 chronic health conditions

4 leaf clovers

Dear Canada/America books

100% cotton anything

My shrimp tank

Crying in bathroom stalls

Crying in the shower

Crying in the hallway

Crying on people's shoulders

Crying at night

Crying in the office(s)

c r y i n g

Dandelions

The blanket a grandma I don't know made me (still have the worn pieces)

Shelters

Steven Universe

The orange/brown aesthetic

My egyptian phase

My monstera

Needing a phone since grade 2 (for reasons) and no probably dying of cancer from having a phone one at all times other wise I have bad anxiety

The 100+ mugs I've bought from thrift stores

Black curly hair

Spider-Man

Ukelele

Wearing pjs all day

That time I pooped my pants and was old enough to remember to this day

The color yellow

Night in the woods

And finally:

My first period stain that made me cry eyes out at bible camp (I didn't know what a period was an my 20 something MALE camp councillor had to explain it to me because I wouldnt talk to anybody else and he ended up driving 1h+ back into town for me to buy me another pair of shorts because my favourite ones where ruined so thanks and sorry man I forget your name but I'll never forget how much you helped me a scared 11 year old with her first period I still look back on those too big turquoise cargo shorts help up with string you got me as being my fav even to this day you restore my hope in men)

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pasteltofus · 5 years ago

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1 Year of Learning Korean

One of the most popular questions I’ve gotten since coming back from Korea is: Are you fluent in Korean now??*

*Spoilers: I am not. 🙃

Looking back, I probably would have become more conversational if I had just done a 3-month intensive program. Although, compared to just learning by myself in the Bay Area, being in Korea definitely gave me more opportunities and motivation. I was placed in the high intermediate class for orientation (switched to low intermediate), but I would say that I’m now truly at an intermediate level. I think my Korean’s more or less the same as my Japanese (which has regressed a lot, and I only took 3 semesters in college) but with very shaky foundations.

Anyways, here’s a brief timeline of what I did this grant year. Let’s go~

[Initiate lock n’ load montage]

July

Korean Intensive Program (8-12pm, 1-2pm M-F)

Because of how the program was structured, I didn’t feel like I learned very much. This is partly why my foundation is so full of holes...we skipped around here and there.

August

Korean Intensive Program

September

Korean was put on pause due to troubles adjusting to homestay

October

Occasionally did a few chapters of Billy Go’s Korean Made Simple at school

Studied some Korean vocab

November

???

December

I don’t think I studied Korean at all

January

Got a wakeup call when I spent 5 minutes trying to read the back of a sign at a smoothie shop and realized how slow I was at reading

February

Vocab grind (1000 Essential Korean Words), plan was to finish by the end of March. Two weeks of intense vocabulary cramming on Quizlet (did nothing in the end lol don’t try that)

Bought the Real Life Conversations Intermediate book

Studied Korean in Kpop lyrics

Started a side coding project to help my touch typing (K-pop lyric typing game)

March

Memorized dialogues from Real Life Conversations book with Lauren

Improved reading skills slightly by listening and following along with the audio recordings that come with the book

Read through the dialogues with the Korean literature teacher in my gyomushil

Continued to learn song lyrics

Wrote sentences with each new vocabulary word, got my co-teacher and the Korean literature teacher to check them (<-this was probably the most helpful game changer...it helped a lot with my spelling too)

Continued working on the K-pop typing game

April

Stopped learning new vocab at around Chapter 11 of Essential Words, focused on retaining old vocab through Anki flash cards

Finished the Go! Billy Korean Made Simple book that I bought ages ago (tbh it was too easy for me at this point but I was just too lazy)

Finally sat down and “learned” Korean verb conjugations (I’d just been going by gut instinct before…tbh I still kind of do 😅)

Kind of dropped the typing game after finishing the MVP 😅but I’m gonna try to finish it up now that I’m back

May

Started to panic about leaving Korea in 2.5 months but still sucking at Korean

Signed up for private lessons once a week for 90 minutes (My tutor asked me to give her a shout out. Her name is 서영심 ([email protected]). If you’re in the Cheongju/Ochang area, she comes to you! She’s very professional and you’ll get your money’s worth.)

Started at the intermediate book that focused on grammar

Learned ~5 grammar points every week

Started writing and reading a lot more and actually seeing how words are spelled. The first time I saw 여기--a super common word (yogi) that means here--written out I thought it was so strange...not that I had thought it was 요기 (also pronounced yogi) but I just didn’t have a visual of it in my head, I guess.

June

Depressed about lack of improvement

Continued with private lessons but felt like I wasn’t really retaining the grammar dump from each week

At the very least, Korean homework kept me on track and made me practice even when I didn’t want to

Started Anki again since I hadn’t actively studied vocab since April.

An old K.Will song that I hadn’t listened to for a long time came up and I realized I could suddenly understand the lyrics. That was pretty cool and one of my small win moments.

July

Feeling pretty hopeless with Korean

However, hung out with more Korean friends that only spoke Korean and felt like I was actually able to contribute to the conversation. (3 hours of Korean Listening ...🙃)

Was able to understand 70% of the conversation at my gyomushil’s final farewell lunch for me. I contributed to the gossip!

Went home and immediately lost 50% of my Korean skills upon touching U.S. soil.

So basically, after my burst of inspiration in February, my confidence and motivation in Korean just kept plummeting. Even now as I write up this post I feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. But I do want to highlight the progress that I’ve made since orientation.

Korean Reading

We were all supposed to be able to read Hangul before we came to Korea. Being able to recognize the alphabet is different from being able to read and also different from knowing the pronunciation rules and where to pause in your reading. During my first semester, my eyes would automatically glaze over whenever I saw Korean text. When the second semester started, I tried to force myself to read everything I came across - storefronts, street signs, advertisements on buses, etc. Even if I didn’t know what it meant, I would force myself to read it. Right now, I can navigate a Korean shopping website and read a menu semi-comfortably. I’m still waiting for the day when I’ll see English sounding hangul and be able to read it as fast as English. Although, I will say it’s really nice to be able to read the Korean titles in Kpop videos on Youtube, especially when I come across really old songs (like Super Junior’s No Other 너 같은 사람 또 없어) and realize I now know what it means.

Also, a new world that has opened up to me is...노래방!! Karaoke is such an adrenaline rush. I’d compare it to sight-reading or DDR/rhythm games where you know something is coming up and the satisfaction you get when you get it right with the beat of the music is 👌. It’s so gratifying to be able to sing along...거기 너 I FANCY YOU 아무나 원하지 않아 HEY! I love you (LOVE YA)!!

Korean Writing

Back during orientation, I couldn’t spell anything on my own. I knew words every koreaboo knew like 어떻게 and 괜찮아 but I couldn’t write it because I didn’t know how spelling worked. It’s no wonder my spelling didn’t improve since a) I didn’t write and b) I didn’t even read. Even now I still make a lot of spelling mistakes, but I pay attention to words when I see them. It’s still a very slow process, but now I can picture the hangul in my head when I think of the word.

Typing: I started orientation with around 15 wpm, then by the end of orientation I got to around 30 wpm. Currently, I’m at 60 wpm when I start cold and after I get warmed up I can go up to 80wpm. Being able to touch type is so useful, especially when I’m typing up long sentences from my textbook and I don’t have to look up.

Korean Listening

Dare I say...my Korean listening is my strongest point??? I remember when I took French listening tests in high school, I would always lament with everyone else that they spoke too fast for me to understand. But interestingly, for both Japanese and Korean, I never had that problem. If it only contains words and grammar I know, I can understand it perfectly fine even if it’s fast. I intuitively understand most Korean verb endings and exclamations so it’s not hard to know which way the conversation is flowing or when to interject with “세상에,” “맞아 맞아,” or “��도 안돼.” I used to think my poor lack of vocabulary was the number 1 thing blocking me from understanding, but then I learned more grammar and realized the things I didn’t know. I do feel like parts of the fog are being lifted...sometimes...

Korean Speaking:

I still feel pretty embarrassed when I speak Korean because there are some sounds that I can’t pronounce. Compared to orientation, I have a few more stock phrases tucked and ready to go, but I still feel unable to express myself. Every conversation will start out fine, but they’ll all stagnate to the same topics and sentences after a while.

Complications with other languages

I talked about how knowing some Japanese and Chinese was both an advantage and a disadvantage during my beginning stages, but this is true even now.

Ever since I started getting more comfortable with typing and spelling Korean, I’ve started seeing the actual Hangul in my head when I think/hear Korean. I’ve also started to associate the locations of the Hangul characters with their locations on the Korean keyboard.

One day, I was trying to text back my mom with “那是什么?” (Na Shi Shen Me/What’s that?) but was confused because those characters weren’t showing up. Then I realized I was typing “sk” instead of “na.” Some of you guys might get it....because “s” is where ㄴ(n) is and k is where ㅏ(a) is on the Korean keyboard. Clearly, my brain can’t handle it. It’s interesting because both the Japanese and Chinese keyboard uses the same alphabet placements as English.

Another time: I was watching a Talk To Me in Korean video where Hyunwoo talked about how 하다 is a very versatile verb. I immediately thought about how the Japanese equivalent is 수루 and even mentally mapped it out on the Korean keyboard...before realizing this is WRONG, WRONG, it’s する not 수루 LOUISE WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING. (They are both pronounced suru)

What’s next?

Now that I’m back in the States, it’s going to take even more determination and self-discipline to keep up with my Korean. But I really don’t want everything I’ve worked towards to just wash down the drain. I’ll aim to finish my intermediate grammar textbook and grind anki flashcards. Hopefully, I can find a language partner or a study group. We’ll see!

#language learning #studying Korean #korean #fulbright korea #sorry for the long post #but yes i am back in california #also which one of you messaged isabel about my blog #thanks for reading whoever you are!!#also shout out to my buddy #i actually have one more post to make on my school festival #and then i'll wrap up this blog #learning korean

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puiupoonlinestore · 4 years ago

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amara-the-average-hunter · 7 years ago

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OC thingy for Amara! -fem birb woman

Thank you @fem-birb-woman, You da real MVP! *finger guns*

Full Name: Amara Elena (She never learned her last name.)

Gender/Sexuality: Female/Bi

Pronouns: She/Her

Ethnicity/Species: Hispanic/Human

Birthplace & Birthdate: Southern Spain, December 24th

Guilty Pleasures: Sweets and cloaks.

Phobias: The Hive make her skin crawl, also, spiders.

What they would be Famous for: She’s an excellent singer, but would be much to shy to actually be famous for it.

What they would get arrested for: Bringing a baby Ahamkara back to the tower because she thought it was ‘cute’. Other than that she’s pretty well behaved.

OC You ship with them: ooohhh...I don’t know. She's sees a lot of cute boys and girls, not sure if she’d be able to pick XD

OC Most likely to Murder them: No clue. She's pretty cool most of the time, do any of you want to Murder Amara? lol

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Action and Romance

Least Favorite Movie/Book Genre: You know those types of movies that are just overwhelmingly stupid that they're supposed to be funny? Yeah, she can't stand them.

Talent and/or Powers: She is able to use all 3 Subclasses after the Red War, before though she was only able to use Void. Also she has a lot of Karate-type skills she uses in battle.

Why someone might love them: She extremely selfless. Very kind and always tries to make sure everyone one around her is happy. She's an excellent listener and wants to help people sort out their problems and be there for them. She has a contagious laugh and she's just so cute & so s m o l

Why someone might hate them: She can get kind of clingy sometimes. But i don’t see why someone would ever hate her.

How they Change: She got a lot tougher after the Red War, a little more solitary too. She was tired of watching her fellow Guardians die and figured if she was alone she would see less of it, she didn't.

Why You love them: Cause she’s a badass version of myself who faces her fears everyday and overcame every obstacle put in her path. She fights her hardest and doesn’t let anyone tell her differently. Plus she's got a good sense of style.

Thank you for wanting to learn more about Amara

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Inside the NCAAW: Can any team stop Sabrina Ionescu and Oregon this season?

It’s prediction season in college hoops: the time when pundits of all stripes, from fervent tweeters to studio show talking heads, are pressed into service to see the future based on how players, coaches and teams performed half a year prior. It would probably be as helpful — or perhaps more so — to burn some sage and summon latent spirits for supernatural insight on whether or not the UConn dynasty is actually in serious jeopardy, but instead we craft takes that may well be Freezing Cold™ within weeks. Thank goodness we writers are so persistently willing to hang ourselves out to dry. What would we all fight about otherwise?

Maybe we need to expand our pool of @ncaawbb experts if you will....... #tiredboss https://t.co/Z2TLp12r9h

— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) November 4, 2019

Last year, the four teams at the top of the preseason poll made it to the Final Four: Notre Dame, UConn, Oregon and Baylor — the latter of which emerged early in the season as a force to be reckoned with, and rode a wave of relentless beatdowns (the kind we’re most accustomed to seeing up in Storrs) to the 2019 title.

But the relative stasis at the top of the NCAAW over the 2018-2019 belied the league’s gradually increasing parity. Newly perennial contenders from the SEC and Pac-12 like Oregon, Mississippi State and South Carolina have joined the party that UConn and Tennessee (the latter unranked for the first time since 1976) helped start. The 2019 title game was won by one point; 2018’s by three — three that have already been etched into the sport’s history books. There is a real chance for programs that have only occasionally scraped the sport’s top tier (like Texas A&M and Oregon State) as well as stalwarts looking to recreate past glory (like Stanford and Maryland).

Most of 2019-2020’s breathless preseason coverage, though, has centered squarely on the Oregon Ducks. The Ducks have dominated national women’s college basketball news more or less since the Final Four thanks to generational talent (and presumed future New York Liberty guard) Sabrina Ionescu, who was compelled by goofy NCAA rules to announce whether or not she would enter the WNBA draft within 24 hours of losing to Baylor in the semifinal. Spoiler alert: she stayed at Oregon, as she announced in a Player’s Tribune missive, despite the fact that she would have likely been the no. 1 pick (an indictment of conditions in the WNBA if there ever was one).

Obviously, Ionescu’s decision to remain in Eugene alongside powerhouse forwards Satou Sabally and Ruthy Hebard (all three are ranked among ESPN’s top ten players nationally) is one based on manifesting what might feel like some overdue rings for the buzzy program. They’re in a great position to do just that with Hebard posting the highest field goal percentage among returning players, Ionescu poised to keep resetting her own triple-double record (she’s currently at 18, six more than the male record-holder), and a fanbase that is more than ready for a springtime trip to New Orleans.

But it’s a lot of pressure, even for someone as self-possessed as Ionescu. “She’s made us relevant in the national championship discussion,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves told SLAM. “Now we’re a national program. Obviously she has great teammates and everybody has helped, there’s no question about that. But she’s really been the face of that resurgence.”

And the Ducks will face considerable competition, even just within their own stacked conference. Stanford had a particularly strong recruiting class joining standouts Kiana Williams and DiJonai Carrington, Oregon State stars Destiny Slocum and Mikayla Pivec put on a show during the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments — and UCLA just came from giving UConn a run for their money in Sweet 16.

The reigning champs also seem highly unlikely to go down without a fight, having only lost Kalani Brown and Chloe Jackson off their remarkably deep roster. Sure, Lauren Cox — who barely escaped serious injury during Baylor’s championship game — is one of the best players in the country. But it was now-sophomore NaLyssa Smith who went 7 of 9 for 14 points in the title game, and Juicy Landrum and DiDi Richards whose six assists each kept the Notre Dame defense on its toes. The Lady Bears kicked off their 2019-2020 preseason with an absolutely brutal 149-32 win over Langston University, just in case anyone forgot what they’re capable of.

As always, the SEC looks to be an enormously fun battleground — this year with more young, raw talent than established stars. South Carolina has its highlight-prone recruiting class led by Zia Cooke and Aliyah Boston; Mississippi State is fielding a bevy of new bigs to try to fill their Teaira McCowan-sized hole and get the ring they’ve come so close to four years in a row; and Texas A&M will be the most fun team to watch in the country because Chennedy Carter is the most fun player to watch in the country, in this biased writer’s opinion. Her duel with Arike Ogunbowale and Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen was the kind of offensive performance that only sounds right as a myth. Arkansas is ranked for the first time in almost two decades on the strength of Chelse Dungee, whose MVP-worthy performance lifted the team to the SEC tournament finals.

.@RazorbackWBB's Chelsea Dungee dropped 31 in her #SECWBB Tournament debut ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/FmbTypU7k4

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 8, 2019

There’s Maryland, where Kaila Charles leads a core group of seniors looking to make a deep run in the tournament after a series of setbacks, and of course the NCAAW’s deepest conference, the ACC, which will look substantially different this year following the departure of some of its marquee seniors.

UConn remains UConn, overdue (on their timeline) for a title and with some uncharacteristically flashy players like Christyn Williams and Crystal Dangerfield more than capable of adding to Geno Auriemma’s era-defining run. An interesting aside: the shape of both UConn and South Carolina’s seasons will be shaped by the not-so-invisible hand of the NCAA, which has denied transfer waivers to both programs that would allow Evina Westbrook (who is coming from Tennessee) and Destiny Littleton (from Texas) to play immediately. Why anyone would be kept from playing a sport for free where they want to is the kind of proprietary secret the NCAA prefers not to discuss, but the programs in question aren’t keeping quiet about it.

“You don’t get to decide who’s a yes and who’s a no, because that leads to a lot of other questions that we can’t answer, and then it starts to lead to conspiracy theories. ‘Why does this kid get a yes and that kid get a no? Because they’re going to that school or because they’re involved in that sport,’” Auriemma told the Hartford Courant. “I don’t know that we want to be in the business of doing anything other than what’s in the best interest for the kid. Does it benefit the kid to sit out, especially when the coach and the athletic director at the school that they’re leaving go ‘I’ve got no problem with this?’”

Anyway, none of us really know anything about what will happen this season besides the fact that a healthy portion of it will be extremely entertaining. Here is a Twitter list of the top 25 programs with some good media follows (Swish Appeal, of course, should be your first stop), and a few good games to check out in a sea of soft early-season match-ups.

USA WNT exhibition match-ups at No. 6 Texas A&M (Nov. 7, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN+) and No. 1 Oregon (Nov. 9, 7 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network)

Two of the best college teams vs. the best in the world as they prepare for Tokyo — it’s a no brainer.

youtube

No. 8 South Carolina at No. 4 Maryland (Nov. 10, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN)

First ranked match-up of the season is between two teams with a ton to prove.

Tennessee at No. 16 Notre Dame (Nov. 11, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Could a Muffet McGraw-led team really have taken such a precipitous tumble in the few months since a near title run? Five just-graduated starters in the W say...yes, but ESPN is giving us the chance to see for ourselves.

0 notes

chosito · 7 years ago

Note

Do all the questions on the salty ask list!!!

Hey, darling! Thank you for letting me go off

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?* There’s a few but one of the most that make the least sense to me is Diego & Varynn.

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?* Diego & Varynn (and not even a BroTP but like friends).

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? Not on ships or character opinions, but I’ve blocked people over problems in the fandom that they refused to acknowledge (like racism and homofobia) or because of their attitude.

Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?* Drake & MC are a NoTP for me (I’d still write for them tho), and I’d say that’s really popular in the fandom.

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?* Kinda? Not completely, but it has made me take some distance from a certain ship.

Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?* Uuuh, I don’t think I’ve hated a pairing besides Drake & MC and all the ones that pair minors with adults, so no.

Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?* I liked like the first 5 chapters of ROE before it turned shit (in my opinion, of course).

Have you received anon hate? What about?* Yeah, someone once called me a spic (if you don’t know, spic is racial slur for people who are Latinos or of Latino descent).

Most disliked character(s)? Why? here you go love.

Most disliked arc? Why? That kind of redemption arc that they tried to give to Becca before it went to shit and she betrayed the only person that has showed her unconditional love (I’m talking about Madison).

Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? I kinda like Madelaine because although is power-hungry, she’s no-nonsense, practical, and determined. Her whole life was probably based on going after the crown and educating her so that she’d be the perfect queen and that’s what she’s doing like literally, she doesn’t give two shits about someone else fucking the man who’s supossed to be her husband.

Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Sebastian’s arc probably, he’d be a cool dude to be neutral with if he isn’t trying to be an wanker on purpose.

Unpopular opinion about XXX character? Penelope is rather boring in my opinion.

Unpopular opinion about your fandom? It’s not really unpopular because several users agree and have made posts about this, but there’s a tendency of a lot of users of ignoring some huge issues like homophobia or racist fetishizations .

Unpopular opinion about the manga/show? LoveHacks was some good shit (solely because of Horatio Santos, Mark Collins, especially in that black suit, and the real mvp C. Coleman).

If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? I’d give The Sophomore a plot.

Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased? Not at all, it just means that the popular ship isn’t what you want for your MC’s romantic life (and that’s perfectly fine).

What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom? The anons that send ppl death threats because of which characters they stan & also some ppl’s tendency to look over the big issues like racism and homophobia (I know I repeated this several times, but I’d just want it to make it clear).

What is the purest ship in the fandom? Any ship from HSS.

What are your thoughts on crack ships? As long as it’s not involving a minor with an adult (e.g: Andy & Horatio), I′m fine with whatever.

Popular character you hate? Drake I’m not even sorry about this tbh.

Unpopular character you love? Not that I love her, but I kinda like Madelaine (like she’s a well-developed villain/anti-hero and a very determined woman).

Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not? I’ve recommended Choices to my friends because it’s a good game with some really good stories.

How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX? I would’ve ended TF at book 3 everytime I read a chapter with no plot it takes 10 years off my life and ROE at book one, they’re just dragging this out tbh.

Most shippable character? Endless Summer MC, you can probably ship them with almost everybody and it’ll make sense.

Least shippable character? It’s a tie between Rourke who doesn’t resemble Tony Stark in the slightest bit and this isn’t sarcasm & John Tull

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keisukehondafans · 8 years ago

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May 21, 2017: HAT-TRICK FOR EUROPE: AC MILAN-BOLOGNA 3-0

Three goals in the second half and the Rossoneri clinch sixth place

Against Bologna, AC Milan take home the most precious win in the season. The 3-0 victory in front of more than forty thousand people gives the three points to the Rossoneri who clinch sixth place and make it back into Europe after a three-year absence. A hard-fought win, with all the goals coming in the second spell. Montella’s boys created a lot throughout the game, lacked the final pass, but showed great hunger and desire and managed to take home the win thanks to Deulofefu, followed by Honda - three minutes later. Lapadula’s goal in stoppage time is the right reward for the Red and Black No 9 who went close to scoring on several occasions. AC Milan have now 63 points in the league, with still one game to play - at Cagliari - before the end of the season.

RELIVE AC MILAN-BOLOGNA PLAY BY PLAY

THE MATCH REPORT In the 2' Lapadula has already the chance to break the deadlock but the striker is ruled offside. The Rossoneri try to control the game, but in the first 45' never actually trouble Mirante. Montella's boys have a great chance in the 14' through Lapadula who though misses an easy goal. In the 23' Montolivo wins back the ball and finds Pasalic who goes for goal but a fine defensive play from Bologna's defence denies the Croatian midfielder. In the 27' Bologna have their chance through Donsah, while in the 29' Lapadula shoots high, once more. As the teams are back for the second half, AC Milan keep pushing hard and first through Romagnoli (48') then through Deulofeu go close to finding the lead. In the 69' San Siro can finally explode with joy as Deulofeu beats Mirante after Mati's fine assist. Flying on the wings of enthusiasm, the Rossoneri double the lead: this time is Honda with a sumptuous free-kick to beat Bologna's 'keeper. It's the 73' and the fans start celebrating. In the final minutes of the game, Lapadula gets his reward as he puts the game to bed scoring the goal for 3-0 and the young Cutrone makes his Serie A debut coming on for Deulofeu.

THE REACTION Montolivo: "I'm happy, we really wanted this sixth place. This is only the beginning, we can aim higher. We did it also thanks to the manager. You can always see his style of play on the pitch".

THE STAT With today’s goal, Honda has ended a goal drought which lasted 16 Serie A meetings. (Excuse, he almost didn’t play, what did you expect he would do?! >.< ;x)

VIEW ALL THE STATS OF THE MATCH

THE KEY MOMENT The turning point is in the 58’ when Montella brings on Honda for Bacca, fielding the Rossoneri in a 4-3-3 and moving Deulofeu on the left. the Spanish international scores the goal that breaks the deadlock followed a few minutes later by Honda’s free-kick which gives the Rossoneri a two-goal lead.

THE MVP Audi Player Index's was Mati Fernandez with a total score of 738 points. The Chilean was decisive with the two assists for Deulofeu and Lapadula.

AC MILAN-BOLOGNA 3-0

AC MILAN (3-5-2): Donnarumma; Gomez, Paletta, Romagnoli; Deulofeu (85’ Cutrone), Bertolacci (46’ Mati Fernandez), Montolivo, Pasalic, Vangioni; Bacca (58’ Honda), Lapadula. Subs: Guarnone, Storari, Altare, Calabria, Zapata, Kucka, Locatelli, Sosa, Ocampos. Coach: Montella.

BOLOGNA (4-2-3-1): Mirante; Torosidis, Gastaldello, Helander, Mbaye (65’ Kraft); Donsah, Taider; Verdi, Di Francesco (15’ Okwonkwo), Krejci (57’ Rizzo); Destro. Subs: Da Costa, Sarr, Oikonomou, Pulgar, Viviani, Nagy, Umar, Petkovic, Masina. Coach: Donadoni.

Referee: Giacomelli from Trieste. Goals: 69’ Deulofeu (M), 73’ Honda (M), 90'+1’ Lapadula (M). Booked: 6’ Helander (B), 69’ Deulofeu (M), 72’ Gastaldello (B), 90'+2’ Cutrone (M).

#AC Milan #Milan #Keisuke Honda #Mati Fernandez #Gerard Delofeu #Gianluca Lapadula #Alessio Romagnoli #Riccardo Montolivo

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gurguliare · 8 years ago

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G O L L U M

1-3 things I enjoy about them

long feet to love you, bright eyes to read by, thin hair = low-maintenance

no, um, I… I like how people’s visual bead on him is so bad he gets mistaken for everything from a squirrel to a log. “Maybe Gollum just is blurry.” It kind of fucks me up how much of the book people spend talking about him in this forestalling way where it’s like, YEAH he was tortured again, oops, Bad Things Happen To Gollum is how we measure plot beats now, and hey we care about that because we’re good people, but does pain really register to him?

and then you meet gollum and the answer is: huh! yup! super does! he reacts so strongly and hopelessly to being screwed over or helped in even minor ways, and he’s… bored, inquisitive, chatty… acts like a homicidal grandma in a hole-filled latex suit… um, I feel like I’m wandering off-topic. It just freaks me out to have Gollum, after 500 years of possession in a basement, being super mundanely and vocally a person on the page and meanwhile everyone in the book is like “WHAT PERSON”

that’s not “something i enjoy about gollum.” all the things i enjoy about gollum are just “scenes with gollum in them.” true mvp.

I like how after losing the Ring it took him a further 50 years to leave his house

Something interesting about them based on tenuous circumstantial evidence

I know Gollum says you can’t reach the faces in the Dead Marshes but I’m pretty sure elf bodies don’t decay and like, what I’m saying is, did Gollum eat Gil-Galad

A question I have about them

Whoops. That was my question.

A random relevant line I like

I—this doesn’t count but the SPEED and RAPIDITY with which sam plunges from “mocking his speech patterns” to “using his speech patterns completely in earnest all of the time” would. do dragonchat proud

My preferred version, if there is more than one version of their story (or part of their story)

Not The One Where He Sacrifices Himself

Favorite relationship(s)

Bilbo, Frodo, um, Faramir, Legolas and Gimli in the they-go-to-Aman AU where Legolas is constantly trying to find Gollum and apologize for something but no one, including possibly Legolas, can figure out what.

How would they react to Tom Bombadil

this is horrible

#pipistrellus #no one expects the fannish inquisition #lotr

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bwinbettingcasinobwin-blog · 7 years ago

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bwin betting casino bwin

0 notes

connwaer-s · 7 years ago

Text

im real bored so ill just do this under a cut or something

Truth Game thing?

shoutout to the real mvp @caffeinated-clutter for the tag love u buddy

1.Nickname: mocha, mickey

2. Bias: whom

3. Blood Type: b i think

4. Relationship Status: single

5. Birthday: 19 august

6. Zodiac Sign: leo

7. Pronouns: he/him

8. Hair Length: almost shoulder length and i hate it

9. Height: 5'3

10. A crush: nop

11. What do you like about yourself: the way my hands look are nice, and i like that my nails can consistently grow long

12. Right or left handed: right

13. List three favorite colors: blue, gold, neon-anything

14. Right now eating: nada

15. Right now drinking: water cause i gotta stay healthy you know how it is

16. I’m about to: continue to not do my english homework

17. Listening to: done with love by zedd

18. Kids: oh my god never

19. Get married: maybe but im not betting on it

20. Recent phone call: mom, telling her to buy a cat litter scoop (she didnt)

21. Have you ever dated someone twice: no god

22. Been cheated on: no?

23. Kissed someone and regretted it: boy im 17 i aint even kissed someone in general thats not my thing

24. Lost someone special: ,,,,,,, maybe? dunno, honestly i dont really remember people

25. Been depressed: woo boy 24/7

26. Been drunk and thrown up: never thrown up, surprisingly

27. Had glasses or contacts: i’m blind as shit so yea i have glasses

28. Had sex on a first date: i ‘ m s e v e n t e e n (but also ace so nah)

29. Broken someone’s heart: p...probably..?

30. Turned someone down: not directly but probably

31. Cried when someone died: noone’s died recently enough that i care about

32. Fallen for a friend: ye but temporarily

33. In the last year have you made a new friend: ye

34. Fallen out of love: never been in love

35. Laughed until you cry: oh my god yes it happens every time i talk to fiona honestly

36. Met someone who changed you: yea im really impressionable

37. Found out who your true friends were: ? probably?

38. Found out someone was talking about you: never in a bad way i think

39. Lips or eyes: eyes

40. Hugs or kisses: hugs

41. Shorter or taller: taller

42. Romantic or spontaneous: neither

43. Sensitive or loud: loud ppl are exhausting when i’m with them for too long so

44. Hookup or relationship: no

45. First best friend: anna from all saints! kindergarten! i remember you bitch i hope you’re doing well in california if you’re still there!!!

46. Surgery: yeah 9th grade

47. Sports: no

48. Do you believe in yourself: oouf not really

49. Miracles: no

50. Love at first sight: no

51. Heaven: no (damn arent i a party pooper)

52. Do you have any pets: yea a tiny kitty!!!!!

53. Do you want to change your name: nope, changed it twice already and i’m content with this

54. What did you do for your last birthday: had people over and played video games

55. What time did you wake up today: somewhere between 06.30 and 07.10

56. What were you doing last night at midnight: mmmmm was on a call with fiona

57. Something you can’t wait for: to get my copy of the natsume zine in the mail? to visit father in two weeks and see how he’s doing?? to move out next year???

58. Last time you saw your mom: like 20 mins ago

59. What is the one thing you wish you could change about your life: my entire family

60. What’s getting on your nerves: my english teacher, my stepdad and mum, this book i’m supposed to be reading, my intense tiredness

ok that’s it thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of “micah stop fucking browsing social media and actually do your homework” byeeee

#personal #honest to god i actually love being tagged in this shit #i love reading other ppls responses #its also nice to periodically be reminded that people remember i exist

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tutorsof · 7 years ago

Text

Graded Project- Financial Management

Graded Project

Financial Management

OBJECTIVE

Demonstrate the ability to perform financial calculations and analysis related to the concepts covered in this course.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this project is to give you practical experience with financial computations and decision making in the Financial Management field. In this project, you'll calculate and analyze company balance sheets in the role of a financial manager. Your assignment is to analyze the financial position of the companies mentioned and make recommendations as to the most productive use of their assets and the ideal financial structures for their balance sheets. Show all calculations or calculator inputs for credit. Do all work using equations and a calculator. Do not submit or use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate.

Part 1: Financial Statements and Ratios

1A. You're the chief financial officer (CFO) of Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. The company manufactures and sells widgets at factories in the United States and internationally. Listed below are partial financial statements for Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. Fill in the missing information in each of the following financial statements. Answer spaces are given below.

Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 (in millions of dollars)

2015

2014

2015

2014

Assets

Liabilities and Equity

Current assets:

Current liabilities:

Cash and marketable securities

$ 427

$ 322

Accrued wages and taxes

$ 309

$ 257

Accounts receivable

a. ?

259

Accounts payable

381

b. ?

Inventory

815

797

Notes payable

$ 492

$ 421

Total

$1,542

$1,378

Total

$1,182

$997

Fixed assets:

Long-term debt:

1,934

c. ?

Gross plant and equipment

d. ?

$2,817

Total

3,116

2,956

Less: Depreciation

368

254

Stockholders' equity:

Net plant and equipment

$2,872

$2,563

Preferred stock (30 million shares)

$ 30

$30

Other long-term assets

521

487

Common stock and paid-in surplus (250 million shares)

300

e. ?

Retained earnings

1,489

1,142

Total FA

f. ?

$3,050

Total Equity

$1,819

$1,472

Total assets

$4,935

$4,428

Total liabilities and equity

$4,935

$4,428

a. Accounts receivable for 2015_______

b. Accounts payable for 2014_______

c. Gross plant and equipment for 2015_______

d. Long-term debt for 2014_______

e. Common stock and paid-in surplus (250 million shares) for 2014_______

f. Total FA for 2015_______

Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. Income Statement for Years Ending December 31, 2015 and 2014 (in millions of dollars)

2015

2014

Net sales

g. ?

$2,018

Less: Cost of goods sold

753

h. ?

Gross profits

$1,623

$1,189

Less: Other operating expenses

423

167

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA)

$1,200

$1,022

Less: Depreciation

114

Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)

$1,086

$ 908

Less: Interest

i. ?

128

Earnings before taxes (EBT)

$ 949

$ 780

Less: Taxes

j. ?

234

Net income

$ 664

$ 546

Less: Preferred stock dividends

Net income available to common stock holders

$ 566

$ 448

Less: Common stock dividends

219

199

Addition to retained earnings

$ 347

$ 249

Per (common) share data:

Earnings per share (EPS)

k. ?

$1.79

Dividends per share (DPS)

$ 0.88

l. ?

Book value per share (BVPS)

m. ?

$ 5.77

Market value per share (MVPS)

$23.97

$22.47

g. Net sales for 2015_______

h. Less: Cost of goods sold for 2014_______

i. Less: Interest for 2015_______

j. Less: Taxes for 2015_______

k. Earnings per share (EPS) for 2015_______

l. Dividends per share (DPS) for 2014_______

m. Book value per share (BVPS) for 2015_______

Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. Statement of Cash Flows for Year Ending December 31, 2015 (in millions of dollars)

Section A. Cash flows from operating activities

Net income

n. ?

Additions (sources of cash):

Depreciation

114

Increase in accrued wages and taxes

o. ?

Increase in accounts payable

Subtractions (uses of cash):

Increase in accounts receivable

–41

Increase in inventory

p. ?

Net cash flow from operating activities

q. ?

Section B. Cash flows from investing activities

Subtractions:

Increase in fixed assets

–$343

Increase in other long-term assets

r. ?

Net cash flow from investing activities:

s. ?

Section C. Cash flows from financing activities

Additions:

Increase in notes payable

t. ?

Increase in common and preferred stock

Subtractions:

Decrease in long-term debt

–25

Pay dividends

u. ?

Net cash flow from financing activities:

v. ?

Section D. Net change in cash and marketable securities

$105

n. Net income_______

o. Increase in accrued wages and taxes_______

p. Increase in inventory_______

q. Net cash flow from operating activities_______

r. Increase in other long-term assets_______

s. Net cash flow from investing activities_______

t. Increase in notes payable_______

u. Pay dividends_______

v. Net cash flow from financing activities_______

Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. Statement of Retained Earnings as of December 31, 2015 (in millions of dollars)

Balance of retained earnings, December 31, 2014

$1,142

Plus: Net income for 2015

w. ?

Preferred stock

x. ?

Common stock

219

Total cash dividends paid

317

Balance of retained earnings, December 31, 2015

$1,489

w. Plus: Net income for 2015 _______

x. Preferred stock _______

1B. For each of the items listed below, indicate on which of the major statements they would be found (1, 2, 3 or 4) and the amount shown on the statements above:

1. Balance sheet 3. Statement of cash flows

2. Income statement 4. Statement of retained earnings

1. Earnings before taxes for 2015_______; $_______

2. Gross plant and equipment for 2015 _______; $_______

3. Increase in fixed assets, December 31, 2015 _______; $_______

4. Net sales for 2015 _______; $_______

5. Balance of retained earnings, December 31, 2015 _______; $_______

6. Common stock and paid-in surplus for 2014 _______; $_______

7. Net cash flow from investing activities, December 31, 2015 _______; $_______

8. Increase in inventory, December 31, 2015 _______; $_______

9. Accrued wages and taxes for 2014 _______; $_______

10. Book value per share (BVPS) for 2015 _______; $_______

2. You'll need to compare your company's ratios with the industry's standards.

Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc.

Company

Industry

Comparison

Current ratio

2.2 times

Quick ratio

1.1 times

Cash ratio

0.35 times

Inventory turnover

2 times or 1 time

Days' sales in inventory

135 days or 335 days

Average payment period

110 days

Sales to working capital

3 times

Total asset turnover

0.6 times

Debt-to-equity

1.1 times

Profit margin

16.5%

Gross profit margin

48.13%

ROA

8.78%

ROE

19.45%

Dividend payout

32%

A. Use the information found in Worldwide Widget Manufacturing's financial statements to calculate all of the listed financial ratios in the above table for your company. Then, for each ratio, provide a comparison of the company's result with the industry standards, indicating if your company's results are lower than, higher than, slower than, or faster than the industry standards.

B. Calculate your company's internal and sustainable growth rates.

Part 2: The Value of Money, Bonds and Stocks

3. The company you work for is looking to expand. As the CFO, you're tasked with comparing the cost of buying manufacturing equipment now, at a $250,000 discount from its original price of $1,650,000 and storing it for a year, or waiting one year to buy it. The cost of buying the equipment includes the supplier's bill and the cost to store the item, for a total of $1,464,000. What interest rate is implied by a $1,464,000 cash flow today, versus $1,650,000 in a year? When it comes to obtaining the cash for the purchase of the equipment, what is your recommendation on whether the company should purchase the equipment now or wait a year?

4. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., decided to go ahead with its plan to expand. It issued $30 million in debt due in 30 years to finance the expansion at an 8 percent coupon rate. The company makes interest-only, semiannual payments of $1,200,000 on this debt. Debt issued today would cost only 7 percent interest. You have been asked to determine whether the company should issue new debt (for 25 years) to pay off the old debt. If the company does so, it will have to pay $1.7 million as a "call premium" to the existing debt holders, and also $1.4 million to its investment bankers to float the issue. If the new debt was issued, what would be the semiannual interest payment savings or cost? What is the cost to refinance the debt? What would be the present value of the semiannual savings in interest payments over the life of the debt? Should you advise the company to replace the old debt with new debt? Why?

5. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., is doing so well it decides it's time to become an international company. As the chief financial officer (CFO), you're tasked with raising $340 million of new capital to open offices around the world. In researching the matter, you learn that if bonds due in 20 years are used for raising the capital, they'll be rated AA and will need to offer a yield of 6.5 percent. How many bonds will it be necessary to issue to raise the needed capital? What will Worldwide Widget Manufacturing have to make as a semiannual interest rate payment?

Part 3: Stock Returns

6. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., has decided to invest in some stock. As CFO, you've been asked to review the portfolio. First, you'll need to measure the past performance of the investments. Then, measure the past return's risk of the investment. Lastly, calculate the average return and risk of the portfolio.

The following table shows the annual returns for Company A and Company B, which are part of the investment portfolio you're interested in

Company A

Company B

Year 1

5.23%

13.51%

Year 2

8.91

-9.35

Year 3

7.32

2.44

Year 4

-15.81

3.12

Year 5

-8.32

14.81

Year 6

25.98

18.36

What's the average return and standard deviation of returns for these two companies? What's the average return and standard deviation of returns for the portfolio? What's the average return of a portfolio consisting of 60 percent of Company A and 40 percent of Company B?

7. After coming to a final decision, Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., has a stock portfolio that consists of the following positions, with betas shown for each stock. You've been asked to calculate and evaluate the risk of the portfolio beta and the required return for your portfolio. The market return is expected to be 11 percent, and the risk-free rate is 6 percent.

Price

Position

Weight

Beta

W x Beta

Merck & Co., Inc.

150

1.62

Domino's Pizza

200

152

1.8

Macy's, Inc.

300

1.42

Tesla

150

202

2.51

Totals

What's the beta of the portfolio? Is this a high- or low-risk portfolio? What's the required return of the portfolio? Fill in the position, weight, and portfolio beta columns for each company in the table above. Show calculation.

A. Merck & Co., Inc.

1. Position:

2. Weight:

3. W × Beta:

B. Domino's Pizza

1. Position:

2. Weight:

3. W × Beta:

C. Macy's, Inc.

1. Position:

2. Weight:

3. W × Beta:

D. Tesla

1. Position:

2. Weight:

3. W × Beta:

Total Position:

Total W × Beta:

Expected Return:

The risk of the portfolio:

Part 4: Capital Budgeting

8. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., is preparing to launch a new manufacturing facility in a new location. The company has a capital structure that consists of debt and common and preferred stock. The company is considering changing this capital structure in conjunction with the launch of the new manufacturing facility. The manufacturing facility project is slated to be funded with 30 percent debt, 30 percent preferred stock, and 40 percent common stock. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing has 15 million shares of common stock outstanding. The shares sell at $24.63 per share. The company expects to pay an annual dividend of $1.50 one year from now, after which future dividends are expected to grow at a constant 7 percent rate. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing's debt consists of 30-year, 9-percent annual coupon bonds with a face value of $180 million and a market value of $185 million. The company's capital mix also includes 200,000 shares of 12-percent preferred stock trading at par. If Worldwide Widget Manufacturing has a marginal tax rate of 32 percent, what weighted average cost of capital (WACC) should it use as it evaluates this project?

9. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., wants to add two new production lines of widgets. You're asked to analyze whether to go forward with two mutually exclusive projects. The cash flows of both projects are displayed below. Your company uses a cost of capital of 9 percent to evaluate projects such as the two you're now analyzing. Show all calculations.

Year:

Project A Cash Flow

–$1,000

$150

$300

$500

$300

$250

Project B Cash Flow

–$1,400

$300

$470

$200

$600

$350

Calculate the payback of Project A:

Calculate the payback of Project B:

Calculate the IRR of Project A:

Calculate the IRR of Project B:

Using the NPV method and assuming a cost of capital of 6 percent, calculate the NPV of these two projects. Which of these mutually exclusive projects should the company accept?

Part 5: Forecasting and Capital Structure

10. You've been asked to use the following historical sales information to forecast next year's sales for Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc. The actual sales for 2016 were $1,950,000.

Year:

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Sales

$1,750,000

$2,000,000

$1,350,000

$2,250,000

$1,800,000

What would be next year's forecast using the naïve approach and the average sales approach? What would be the MAPE using the naïve approach and the average sales approach?

11. After adding a new line of widgets, Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., expects all assets and current liabilities to shrink with sales. The company has sales for the year just ended of $20 million. The company also has a profit margin of 20 percent, a return ratio of 25 percent, and expected sales of $18 million next year. Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., shows the following on its balance sheet.

Assets

Liabilities and Equity

Current assets

$2,500,000

Current liabilities

$1,250,000

Fixed assets

$3,500,000

Long-term debt

$1,500,000

Equity

$3,250,000

Total assets

$6,000,000

Total liabilities and equity

$6,000,000

What amount of additional funds (AFN) will Worldwide Widget Manufacturing, Inc., need from external sources to fund the expected growth? What does the AFN show?

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williamjharwick · 8 years ago

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Physical Product Experiment [PPE #3]—Prototypes

Welcome to the third installment of the Physical Product Experiment! If you missed the previous two installments, go back and check those out first before reading on. You can find those posts here: Physical Product Experiment [PPE #1] and Physical Product Experiment [PPE #2].

In this installment, Physical Product Experiment [PPE #3], we’re exploring prototypes! But first, here’s a quick recap of where I started and where I am today:

I am experimenting with a physical product: a productivity calendar I hope will be like nothing else out there. In the first post in this series, I shared details about the product itself, and where I’m starting my research. In the second post, I discussed how I am going to be reaching out for validation and feedback.

Regarding that validation and feedback, I mentioned in the previous post that we were hoping for twenty volunteers to help us test out the calendar with an actual, real-world task: writing the draft of a book in ninety days. And guess what? We have our volunteers! We were grateful to receive more than 120 applications, and then whittled that down to twenty-one applicants who had a wide variety of backgrounds with a wide variety of reasons for achieving the same goal: writing a book. That variety is best for testing too. Although I wish I could have picked all 120+ applicants, the cost and logistics of shipping the prototype package (more on that below!) would have been a little too much to manage at this beta test stage.

For the twenty-one applicants we picked, we’ve already sent you an email announcing your part in this exciting experiment! But I wanted to also mention you here, as I truly appreciate your support in this! The twenty-one volunteers for the beta stage of the Physical Product Experiment are:

Gina

Jess W.

Barbara C.

Alex S.

Greg S.

Benny H.

Nakita R.

Mary J.

Stacy B.

Kristie W.

Kristen D.

Jeremy C.

Bree K.

Jeremy

Kelsi M.

Shannon K.

Russ K.

Laura

Jami B.

Alina

Nick H.

Thanks for being willing to go on this journey with me!

For the others who reached out, thank you so much. Unfortunately, we had to limit the number of volunteers, so some of you didn’t make it. But I truly appreciate your amazing outpouring of support. That, in and of itself, is validating for the experiment. Thank you.

Now, there’s a reason why we limited this volunteer group to twenty-one, besides the cost. With small groups, you have a more controlled environment, which is better for communication. With larger groups, it’s more challenging to keep on top of all of the feedback—you risk miscommunication, focus is split between too many people, and you tend to lose sight of the goal. In this case, the goal is to determine if the physical product will help you with your desired outcome.

The product needs to serve its audience.

That’s the whole purpose of this experiment—to create a physical product that will be a game-changer in the lives of those who use it. With a smaller, more focused group of “beta” testers, we can avoid creating something like the universal remote—with hundreds of buttons and a minuscule percentage of useful ones.

The MVP Stage

Right now, we’re nearly at the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage. We’ll soon have the basic components of the product—a prototype—to ship to our volunteers so they can start testing it.

Once the MVP is complete, we’ll share that with our volunteers so they can go through the process of engaging with and actually using the productivity calendar to help them write the first draft of their book in ninety days. And, as the first-round test group, the volunteers will be taking notes of what works well and what needs improvement, from the concepts to the workflow. As I mentioned before, I want this productivity calendar to be the tool to help engaged and aspiring people to achieve targeted goals. If the volunteers think otherwise, we need to remedy that until it does help!

Now, one really cool aspect of this is that the volunteers signed up, for the most part, because of an expressed interest in getting unstuck. They’ve wanted to write the first draft of their book, but have struggled to finish, find motivation, or lacked the accountability to cross the finish line. My goal is that this physical product will be their winning system, their blueprint for success.

Productivity Calendar Prototype Components

My team and I have devised three components to this physical product, all designed to work with each other as part of an integrated method for being super productive and achieving goals. Those components are the calendar, the workbook, and the community.

Each of our twenty-one volunteers will receive a package, shipped to their physical address. The experience will start the moment they open the box, which will include the calendar, workbook, and a welcome sheet that will explain how this experiment will work, when it will start, and a thank you message from me. It will be an exciting unboxing to kick off the goal-seeking journey with a bang.

Let’s look at each one of the prototype components individually.

1. The Calendar

This whole journey began with the idea of creating a better calendar for planning projects and improving productivity. In its original form, it was going to be a large, mostly blank wall calendar to incorporate whatever projects or tasks you would have within your life. Since then, the idea has grown into something much more targeted: a calendar that will be used in conjunction with a workbook to help guide a person through the process of achieving a very specific goal. The first goal we are tackling is writing the first draft of your book in ninety days. This is just one of many goals that there will be workbooks for in the future. (We’ll get to the workbooks in a minute.)

When the testing starts with our twenty-one volunteers, the calendar will be what we call a medium-fidelity version, between low-fidelity (a simple sketch or wireframe) and high-fidelity (fully designed from top to bottom). This medium-fidelity version will allow the volunteers to do what they need to do, but the product itself won’t be in its 100 percent finished design in terms of final colors, fonts, and material.

As for the size and shape of the calendar, our vision is to have a giant wall calendar. But we still need to determine the precise size and shape that will be best for the people who use it based on placement (it shouldn’t take up the entire wall!) and usefulness (giving people room to write, place stickers, engage with their goal in a meaningful, structured way).

A big reason why I think the calendar is extremely important is not only for its tracking purposes or goal-setting capabilities, but for its place as a daily reminder. The calendar itself will be quite large. So, when you put it up on the wall in your writing cave or office, you will have that tangible, in-plain-view reminder every time you sit down, which I hope will be an excellent motivator. At least this is what I visualize in my head.

It’s like what Hal Elrod talks about in his book, The Miracle Morning, when he describes the SAVERS method of establishing a miracle morning. The “V” in SAVERS stands for “Visualization.” Another way to put it is to imagine (visualize) how you want things to pan out in the future. That’s a big motivator for me.

When I was writing Will It Fly?, for instance, I loved the idea that readers would be going through and finding value in the book’s exercises. I was motivated by visualizing people reading the book, going through the exercises, sending me messages about how the book helped them. It may have never happened, but the idea that it could motivated me to keep writing. But guess what? It did happen, and I receive messages from readers almost every day!

The same is true for this physical product. I’m super motivated by the idea that this productivity calendar and workbook will help people achieve their goals. And, for those using the product, the calendar itself is a visualization exercise. When you see your goals and dreams in plain sight on the wall, your daily reminder to work on specific tasks in order to achieve those goals and dreams, it makes it easier to make those visualizations become a reality because it’s there in a place where you see it every day. It’s the classic power of positive thinking: you envision your goals, which helps to reinforce them and keep you on track to achieve them.

I am so excited to see how you use the calendar—putting it up on the wall, how you interact with it on a daily basis, and the reactions shared with me and the SPI community as a whole. That’s what truly motivates me to make the best possible product that I can.

2. The Workbook

The workbook will be more than a blank journal. I love those type of journals and others like The Five Minute Journal, which you know I rave about. They’ve helped me immensely in my business career, and as a writer. But I wanted to create something that stands out. That’s one of the reasons why we’re calling it a workbook as opposed to a journal. This workbook will have more structure, with both journaling opportunities and instructional exercises geared toward the specific goal it’s addressing. It will include guidelines for people as they progress through the ninety-day timeline of writing a first book draft.

My team, especially Matt and Janna, are seasoned writers who have a lot of experience in writing and editing, in addition to helping authors and author-entrepreneurs with strategy in the areas of book publishing, book cover design, and brand voice development. Matt, who’s the CEO of Winning Edits, helped on the editing and content strategy of my first book, Let Go. I connected with Janna through Matt. Her experience in running a literary magazine (Under the Gum Tree), and overall editorial strategy is also a necessary addition to this experiment.

So the workbook will be a companion to the calendar, a tool to check in with yourself and reflect on what is working, what isn’t working, and take notes on potential blockers or distractions. It will include a daily tracking element that will correspond with the calendar. It will also be an integral tool to help people overcome the biggest struggles associated with the goal they are working toward. Each workbook guide and goal we tackle with this product line will have its own section dedicated to overcoming the most common struggle people have while working toward that goal. It’s another differentiator for these workbooks, and it could mean the difference between someone actually pushing through versus not moving forward at all.

For this product prototype, the workbook will help people overcome one of the biggest struggles of writing a book: writer’s block. Yes, that dreaded writer’s block, the bane of every writer’s existence, the thing that keeps you from doing what you want to be doing: writing! But, the good news is that the workbook, along with the calendar, will guide you past it.

The last aspect of the workbook I am really looking forward to seeing how people use is the stickers. Yes, the workbook and calendar will come with stickers to add that visual oomph to your daily productivity.

3. The Community

We have the calendar and the workbook. The third component is the community, an element that is obviously really important when you’re doing any sort of beta launch with a founding group of volunteers because you want a place for them to leave feedback and to express what they’re going through so that you can understand how they are using your product and what is going through their mind.

The community component will also be a part of the final product launch, which is not something you see that often. Typically, community aspects of launches are part of the beta or testing period only. But I think it’s massively important to keep for the public launch too. In my experience, a group working toward a common goal has a greater chance for success. There’s more accountability and camaraderie in a group setting—like the gym partner who cheers you on during that last rep. Plus, having a community creates a space to ask questions, get feedback, and even provide a little bit of friendly competition!

We’ll also be testing out a platform for housing the community. Something different from what I’ve used in the past for other launches (but I do use it regularly with my team). That platform is Slack.

If you’re not familiar, Slack is an amazing and powerful communication tool that can be used to create and foster conversation around specific topics or projects. A lot of people are using Slack nowadays for hosting their communities and it has a lot of benefits. My team uses it internally and I know a number of other teams who use it as well, but I’ve been noticing that a lot of people who sell products offer a Slack community so that their customers can communicate with one another and the product owner as well. That’s pretty cool, and I want the same for this calendar product.

There’s also a cool tool for managing Slack communities called SlackPass.io, which seems like it will become an important part of the administrative process for my team. Some companies that charge for the communities also use this tool to collect payments and manage membership.

Slack comes with a number of advantages. It has an intuitive, and easy-to-use interface. And, one of my favorite features, you can archive conversations, which is something that cannot be done with Facebook Groups, for example. Facebook Groups are great, and they are popular right now, but they may not be best suited for longer term, goal-related processes like this. Slack, on the other hand, empowers everybody in the community to engage on the level that suits them best. And, for me, as the one overseeing the community, I can separate conversations into channels based on certain topics.

For example, there may be a channel specifically for questions for me to answer. There could be a channel specifically related to wins that people can share. There could also be a channel specifically created for all of the random conversations, which is fairly common. For Team Flynn, we have a similar Slack channel called “Giggles” and that’s for posting random funnies and silly gifs within the team without getting in the way of other SPI business-related conversations.

The Slack component for the beta volunteer group is going to be important because it’s going to help us validate whether or not it’s a viable option for hosting a large community working toward a common goal. I do feel like it’s a great option with a lot of upsides in terms of cohesion and inspiration, but we won’t know until we test it out. Of course, people are used to Facebook—I have Facebook Groups for specific products I’ve created—but I wanted to test out Slack as an option and this is the perfect opportunity to do that.

Branding the Physical Product

The final thing I want to talk about is related to the branding of the physical product. My team and I have been going back and forth a lot on the branding, but we’ve come to what we believe is going to be the final brand name (not the product name, but a name for the whole brand):

Atlas

We chose the name Atlas for this product line for a number of reasons. By definition, Atlas is a collection of maps, tables, and charts designed to help guide someone, so it makes sense for a collection of workbooks that will help guide people toward a goal. And who can forget Atlas from Greek mythology? In the mythic stories, Atlas is a Titan who revolts against the gods, but is ultimately forced by Zeus to carry the burden of the heavens on his shoulders. You know the sculpture with the figure holding the planet. That’s Atlas, a perfect metaphor for the strength and resilience required to accomplish a sometimes daunting goal.

For this brand, you can think of Atlas as the parent company or publishing imprint, and each of the individual Atlas products will have its own name. We are essentially creating a new business unit within the SPI universe that will have its own line of products. We’ve been throwing around a number of different ideas for actual product names and some are very obvious and very clear, some are more clever than clear, and some are more brandable than others.

The truth is, at this point, product names don’t really matter. That’s an important lesson for us to realize. We can still accomplish our goal of testing this product and seeing if it’s viable based on the feedback from our beta volunteers. That’s the key right now. Getting the beta product into the hands of our volunteers, getting feedback on specific problems, and finding solutions for those problems. We can’t put the cart before the horse, which is a thing that happens all the time in online business. Starting your own thing is a really exciting prospect, and coming up with a name for your business, creating a website, ordering business cards—all of this is about getting too excited for how your business looks, and now how it serves.

A prime example of this is Instagram. Before it was Instagram, it was Burbn. Yes, after bourbon, the beverage. Kevin Systrom, the co-founder of Instagram, is a fan of Kentucky whiskeys, so he called it Burbn. Back then it wasn’t what Instagram is today. It was an app that enabled users to check in at particular locations (à la Foursquare), plan for future check-ins, earn points for hanging out with friends, and post pictures of their meet-ups. Fast forward to today, and we have Instagram—a completely different name, and a mostly different app—primarily because the Burbn feature that people raved about the most was the photo filters. See how that worked out?

I’m not saying that Atlas will be the next Instagram-level product. I just think it’s a fascinating look at how things change over time based on the market, feedback, and testing. The name itself, Burbn, was probably far less important than getting than app out there, seeing how people used it, what they liked about it, and what they didn’t like about it.

The fact is, with this physical product of mine, you never know how it’s going to go. Maybe the calendar is the highlight for users, and the workbook is less of a draw, so it becomes a bonus add-on. Or maybe it’s the workbook that people like, and the calendar isn’t used at all. You never know. That’s why launching this first go-around with a small group of people is the right move.

What’s Next?

The plan now is to validate this product with the twenty-one volunteers, and to start designing and building out the products, which is going to be a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to that. But, most importantly, the experience that our volunteers have during this initial phase will be crucial to the product’s design and look.

After that, we’re going to run three to four more goals (similar to writing the first draft of a book in ninety days) through this calendar/workbook/community product before we fully nail it down. We’ll also work with other influencers who have goals that their audience may want to achieve that may be suited for a system like this, and reach out to those who may also want to be a part of this. Obviously, there are higher-level business decisions to be made with that and partnerships involved and that sort of thing, but that’s how I hope this will scale.

We are currently considering holding a Kickstarter campaign in November, when there may be four or five different goals that people can choose from initially. And then, if that works out well, possibly add on other goal ideas. The sky’s the limit! This could potentially become something that could house hundreds of goals down the road and become a subscription model where people would pay annually to get access to the library of goals that they can achieve every quarter using the calendar as the foundation, and then mapping their new goals on top of it every time.

It’s really exciting. It’s really fun. It’s different. It’s challenging. But we’re trying to take it one step at a time. The first step is getting our twenty-one volunteers through the process and collecting their feedback.

Yes, we’re eventually going to have to design the thing. We’re eventually going to have to figure out how to manufacture it, ship it, fulfill it, store it, and all of that. The materials of the product will also be important. What is it made of? How will it be manufactured? What will the cost be, and are there ways to save on cost without compromising quality?

These are all important questions and should definitely be thought about early in the process when you’re developing a physical product. But, at the same time, we are still focused on just proving the concept. Materials and manufacturing are important, but without a working prototype, that stuff can wait. Throughout this testing process, there will definitely be opportunities to try various types of calendar material. For example, dry-erase material versus one that’s also magnetic, and taking into account multiple use, versatility, durability, and cost.

But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned since starting my businesses, it’s this: before you spend a ton of time and money on what people use, it’s always best to focus first on why and how people use things. We’re on our way to figuring out those things, and our twenty-one amazing volunteers will help us get there. Let’s prove the concept of the product, let’s nail down the solution, and then we’ll go from there.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for an in-depth look at branding in Physical Product Experiment [PPE #4]!

Physical Product Experiment [PPE #3]—Prototypes shared from David Homer’s Blog

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